“To co-opt an anthem of empowerment is, well, pretty offensive.”
I love Shake It Off. I love it with a deep unbridled passion.
Sure, I would struggle to pick another Taylor Swift song out of a pop top ten line up, but that says more about me than it does about Tay Tay.
I love it because it’s a sick beat that you can get down to. I love it because we dance to it in the middle of the day at work when we’re feeling a bit sluggish, it has that instant uplift factor. But mostly I love it because it’s an empowerment anthem.
You can watch the video for Shake It Off below. Post continues after video.
It says, sure there are some shit people who do shit things sometimes but you can’t let that get you down. You have to, you know, shake it off.
So, I want to say, thanks very much, to The Biggest Loser who have now officially ruined that song for me by making it their new theme song.
Fat? It’s all good. You can shake that off.
A couple of years ago, I decided to embrace the word fat. I use the word fat to describe my physical appearance. Because I am.
I see fat as nothing more than an adjective. In doing so, I’m trying to take out all the baggage we’ve packed into that word over the past 50 years or so; that fat people are lazy and stupid, that they lack discipline, that they don’t care about their health.
When fat is nothing more than a statement of fact, “I am fat”, it has no power. It can’t make me feel bad.
When fat is simply a physical description, it can’t make me feel unworthy. It can’t make me feel less than, or othered.
Fat is not who I am, it’s just my body shape.
Embracing the word fat has been an incredibly powerful thing to do. It’s meant that I can look in the mirror and see a person, not a shape. It means, I’m empowered because I’m an honest, decent human being. I’m a capable, determined woman. I’m not empowered because of my physical appearance.
The Biggest Loser is a show built on the false premise that fat is bad and thin is good. It features extreme weightloss. It takes vulnerable people, places them in a completely unrealistic living situation, forces them to exercise until they vomit, in some cases until they are physically injured, and it severely restricts food intake.
It shames contestants. The show depicts them as unlovable and unworthy. It places them in deeply manipulative situations with food and judges them when they take the bait producers desperately want them to take, in the name of good television.
For a show like that to take Shake it Off, to co-opt an anthem of empowerment is, well, pretty offensive. It says that people like me are the shit people that you should shake off.
Did you really have to, Biggest Loser?
Will you be watching The Biggest Loser this season?
For more on The Biggest Loser…
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Biggest Loser contestant Sam has made some – ahem – big changes.
This Biggest Loser winner has been called ‘sickly’ and ‘skeletal’.
Top Comments
There are a few new ladies at my gym, they have started taking some of the classes. One of them puked last week, while others were simply on the floor struggling for breath. Then there were my friends and I who are used to strenuous workouts, who simply finished the class and went for a run.
The point is, what's hard for one will be easy for others. These people haven't been working out at all. They have led sedentary lives where they eat nothing but crap. The workouts are a shock to the system. They will get better.
the idea that fat is bad and thin is good is not a false premise. Sorry